Hi, friends!
Gosh, I hope you're all doing well. Thanks for subscribing to my podcast!
If you've heard or read me talk about anything in the last 5 months, you've probably heard me talk a LOT about fiddle. I've been playing fiddle since before 8th grade, and I've realized over the past years that it's a core aspect of my life. I've really been getting back into it this year after settling into Portland and finding its traditional music communities.
Lately I've been playing around with cross tunings1 after my friend Kate2 told me about Calico3 tuning. Normally a violin is tuned to GDAE, with G being the lowest string and E the highest. In that tuning, the strings are all a perfect fifth4 apart from the next highest string, which sounds nice enough when you play them at the same time. In Calico tuning, you tune the strings to AEAC#; the A and E are still a fifth apart, but you have one low A and another A an octave higher. The A and C# make a major third5, which means they sound real nice when you play them together, and if you add on the E you have an A major chord. All this means that Calico tuning is basically a free chord you can saw away on without even putting your fingers down on the fingerboard. (One of its siblings is sort of jokingly called Galico, which I've also heard called emo calico hehe).